how can we improve transport in britain geovation camp summary

NSC Insights Generation Service

‘from Problem to Pitch’

A summary of the iScout facilitated support of the GeoVationChallenge: ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’.

March 2011

In this document

• What happened before the GeoVation Camp (pg 3–10)

• What happened at the Camp (pg 11–64)

• What happened after the Camp (pg 65)

• Feedback (pg 66–72)

What happened before the GeoVation camp

• We ran a problem ‘Pow Wow’The goal of a problem Pow Wow is to ‘unpack’ a challenge, such as improving transport in Britain, and discover within it, a range of valuable problems; those which if met provide value for all parties. We spent time with people who have perspectives on transport modes, government policy, sustainability, technology systems and much, much more.

We spent fours hours at the Transport Museum in London, discussing and capturing a whole range of issues in response to the question ‘What are the barriers to developing transport solutions that have a positive environmental, social and economic impact?’. At the end of the session we had 115 ‘raw’ problems. We subsequently clustered these under five broad themes (Modes of Transport/Human Behaviour/Economics/Infrastructure/Users’ Experience) and distilled them into 24 new problem statements. These stated what the problem was and why it mattered. They were used at the Camp to help the innovators really think about how their ideas connected to issues that mattered.

In the images that follow, a sample of the 24 problems are shown. For the full set please visit:

http://www.geovation.org.uk/geovation-challenge-problem-framing-workshop/

Sample from the ‘Modes of Transport’ theme

What is the problem? Why does it matter?How do you design a better bike friendly ‘eco system’ that encourages mass adoption of cycling?

There are too many immediate barriers to bikes being more widely used: they make you dirty; cycle routes can be unsafe; weather makes it unpleasant; you are limited to what can be carried. In London alone 23 000 bikes were reported stolen in 2010 with unreported thefts estimated to add another 40 000 to 60 000.

Sample from the ‘Human Behaviour’ theme

What is the problem? Why does it matter?How do you break entrenched habits and allow people to have an experience from which new, more positive habits will form?

It often takes a dramatic event to jolt us out of our daily routine and adopt a new behaviour (a strike, an accident, volcanic ash...) but we soon slip back into old habits. Scientific research shows that a habit takes from around 30–45 days to change.

Sample from the ‘Economics’ theme

What is the problem? Why does it matter?How do you break the desire for quick returns and enable a much longer term approach to investment that meets the needs of urban and rural communities?

Radical solutions enable better economic, environmental and social value may take decades and £ billions but those in power work in much shorter cycles (of about five years…).

What happened at the GeoVation camp

• 155 ideas were submitted to the GeoVation website

• These submissions were written descriptions of the idea

• The judging panel invited a shortlist to develop them further

• 19 teams then took part in the camp itself

Objective:To support a selection of innovators to develop their ideas for the opportunity of investment.

What happened at the GeoVation camp

• We structured activities around the components of innovationWe believe that Innovation is a product of finding the best problem, responding with an excellent solution and then executing it in order to scale it and make it viable from a business perspective. Our summary equation for this is I = P x S x E.

As innovators had previously submitted ideas to the GeoVation Challenge website in written form only, we felt it important to create activities that brought those ideas to life. At the same time, we wanted to challenge participants to ensure they really had thought about problems and were given an opportunity to build on their ideas. Where possible, we also wanted them to prototype aspects of their thinking in order to demonstrate to the judges a degree of robustness.

Further information about the Challenge can be found on the GeoVation Challenge website here. Over the following pages, there are selection of images which show in chronological order how the Camp unfolded from the initial gathering on the Friday night, to the pitches on Sunday afternoon.

We assembled at Ordnance Survey head office on Friday 25 March 2011

Chris Parker from Ordnance Survey welcomed everyone…

Sean Miller from iScout reminded us of the structure

We got to find out a little about each other…

…by asking each other what our favourite movies were…

…and lining ourselves up in alphabetical order…

…Peter’s favourite is Jaws (Sean’s is Forrest Gump)…

We created a map of the UK based on where we came from…

…then chatted about with those we now knew a little about.…then chatted about with those we now knew a little about.

Saturday morning began with a brief intro from each team…

…with each summing up their idea in 60 seconds or less.

Chair of Judges, Roland Harwood, beamed in by video…

Before Sean reminded us of the structure (again).

We explored the problems that had come from the Pow Wow

…such as ‘How to break entrenched transport habits’.

Then shared our thoughts on how our ideas related to them.Then shared our thoughts on how our ideas related to them.

We practiced our drawing skills....

…then began sketching out ways to improve our ideas.

This enabled discussions which in turn gave rise to new ideas.

Design students from LCC helped us visualise key elements...

which could then be captured for later use in presentations.

After lunch the judges arrived and began their project tour.

While the teams began practicing their petcha kutcha pitches (each team had six slides, each changing after 20 seconds).

‘Route to commute’ kicked off the pitches at 2.00 pm sharp

They were followed by ‘Where go now’ …

Next up was ‘Route en Route’…

Who were followed by ‘London Cycle Map Campaign’…

Who were followed by ‘Pete & Steve Extravaganza’…

Carbon Voyage presented ‘Sustainable Mobility Platform’…

Who were followed by ‘Fast response lift sharing’…

Who were followed by ‘Our Meeting Point’…

Next up were ‘Fix My Transport Anywhere!’…

Who were followed by ‘Real user experiences’ from David Corsar…

Who were followed by ‘@ccessAdvisR’…

Who were followed by ‘Mission Explore’…

Who were followed by ‘Tailored transport solutions’…

Abbey Couriers presented ‘My Parcel Centre’…

And were followed by ‘Carbon Trading Communities’…

Who were followed by ‘Home run’…

Who were followed by ‘Crowd-sourced cycling solutions’…

Who were followed by ‘Where’s my bus?’…

‘Treats for travellers’ closed out a very engaging afternoon of pitches…

After the pitches, Roland Harwood, the Judge Panel Chair, said closing remarks and made thanks to all who’d come.

He advised that all participants would receive notification of whether they would be invited to the showcase, along with feedback from the judges, within 48 hours.

This duly happened, and the teams who were invited back to the GeoVation Showcase on 4 May 2011 (for the chance to pitch for and be awarded a slice of £150 000) were:

• Crowd-sourced cycling solutions• @ccessAdvisR• FixMyTransport – Anywhere!• Carbon Voyage: Sustainable Mobility Platform• Mission:Explore Nature using the National Cycle Network• OurMeetingPoint• London Cycle Map Campaign• Personalised Travel Plans for Business (myPTP)• My Parcel Centre (Abbey Couriers)• Route en Route

For more information on the finalists and what happened at the Showcase, please visit http://bit.ly/ijvzr5

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What happened after the GeoVation camp• Feedback sought to improve future camps

In addition the very positive informal feedback given by participants at the end of the weekend we also followed up with a short online survey. Feedback was extremely good with some small suggestions for improvement made. A sample is included in the appendices.

• Lessons learned for next challengesIn addition to gathering feedback from participants, the GeoVation team also reflected on the weekend. For example this experience of both the Camp, and the Pow Wow that preceded it, had a bearing on how we manage communications with participants in future Challenges.

• Camp activity refinement This was the second Camp run according the I = P x S x E formula but run at much bigger scale (22 teams as opposed to 5 previously). To accommodate four times as many teams in the same overall time, we changed elements of the Sunday. Judges had parallel sessions with teams ahead of their pitches in order to keep the pitching session to schedule. Overall this was felt to work well but we are aware that the larger number of teams brought a greater breath of how well formed or otherwise ideas were. We want to find ways to keep this diversity (from fledgling idea to business development) without disadvantaging anyone.

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Online camp survey

In the two weeks following the camp, an online survey was distributed to all participants (idea developers, idea supporters and judges).

The following slides show some of the feedback taken from their responses regarding various aspects.

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On the design of the camp and the support received

‘Everyone involved in running the weekend was very helpful and supportive. iScout were excellent facilitators.’

‘It felt like the organisers had done a great job of pulling together all of the right ingredients (people) for the innovation to flow.’

‘I was very grateful for the extra support from everyone, they were great, however, asking idea developers what support they may need could have highlighted some needs that may not have been available.’

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On the venue

‘Lovely place but far too far away from most people. A more central venue would have made travelling easier and less expensive.’

‘The venue worked well, however some of the rooms were a little uninspiring. But there was enough space and it was very comfortable.’

‘The venue was pretty good, however, the first part (problem exploration) could be done in a big room where all the teams could cooperate with each other… help them to put aside their ideas for a moment and deeply/broad understand the central problem they were dealing with.’

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On what was the ‘Aha!’ moment from the weekend

‘Helping the teams understand the user perspective.’

‘My Aha moment perhaps came later when I thought a low tech version of my idea might be more successful.’

‘Saturday afternoon getting support from all of the various expert advisers who made me realise that more of the concept was technically feasible than I had initially realised.’

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On how to make it better

‘It was fine - don't think much needs to be changed.’

‘To have had a room of experts to could visit, like a surgery.’

‘Make it clear exactly what the judges/competition will be looking for… if the competition is looking to provide the some funding for a only business venture, and it not interested in supporting and collaborating on an academic research project, then this should be clear.’

‘Shorten it to one day and combine with the final.’

‘Make the camp slightly longer – perhaps a third day.’

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On advice you’d offer future participants

‘Keep your idea simple and focus on presenting a minimal viable product, with a twist.’

‘To be absolutely clear in very simple terms what your idea actually does. As a judge it was not always possible to understand this from the Pecha Kucha presentations.’

‘Be open minded and go with the flow.’

‘Bank plenty of sleep before you come, bring plenty of people to engage in the creative process, bring a stack of business cards:you will want to contact many of the people you meet.’

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On why you’d recommend the Camp to others

‘We found the other competitors to be very open and genuinely helpful; there was absolutely no sense of people trying to “get one over on each other2”, just a very collaborative and simulating environment.’

‘It was a brilliant time, and gave me new insight into innovations and innovators as well as improving my own skillset.’

‘I learned a lot – it was very interesting to be outside my comfort zone and interact with such a wide range of people.’

‘I think it is of benefit for many personal development reasons beyond just developing the idea.’

For more information on any of the information contained in this document, please contact:David Townson: david@innovationscout.co.uk 07974 741315

For more information on the GeoVation Challenge in general and this camp in particular, please go to: http://bit.ly/mrfQBG or contact: champions@geovation.org.uk

The GeoVation Challenge is funded by:

The GeoVation transport challenge was supported by:

Thank you